He invented his own cinematic style, which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism (the only sanctioned art style in the USSR). This, combined with his controversial lifestyle and behaviour, led Soviet cinema authorities to repeatedly persecute and imprison him and suppress his films.

Although he started professional film-making in 1954, Parajanov later disowned all of his pre-1964 works as "garbage". After directing Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (renamed Wild Horses of Fire for most foreign distributions) Parajanov had become something of an international celebrity and simultaneously a target of attacks from the system. Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965–1973 were banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film administration, both local (in Kiev and Yerevan) and federal (infamous Goskino), almost without discussion until he was finally arrested in late 1973 on trumped-up charges of rape, homosexuality and bribery. Parajanov was imprisoned until 1977, despite a plethora of pleas for pardon from various esteemed artists.

Even after his release (he would be arrested for the third and last time in 1982) he was a persona non grata in Soviet cinema. It was not until the mid-1980s, when the political climate started to relax, that he could resume directing. Still, it required the help of influential Georgian actor Dodo Abashidze and other friends to have his last feature films green-lighted. His health seriously weakened by four years in labor camps and nine months in a Tbilisi prison, Parajanov died of lung cancer in 1990, at the time when, after almost 20 years of suppression, his films were finally again allowed to be featured in foreign film festivals.

Poultry comes to life!

Aleksander Mihailovich Tatarskiy (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Тата́рский, December 11, 1950, Kiev, Soviet Union – July 22, 2007, Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet/Russian animation film director, script writer and producer, animator and an artist of Ukrainian origin. Honoured arts worker of Russia, laureate of the State Premio of Russian Federation in the field of "literature and arts", laureate of Nika Award.

The muddle of different dreams of﻿ a man, a woman and a dog. Every dream is full of melancholy in the evening, sensuality at night and nightmares before the sunrise.

It is an old film about habitual life of strange people who look like ordinary people. There are no music and words in the film, only birds sing and laugh in the distance. It is a film in which realism and surrealism are intertwined as it is possible in animation in our time.

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"Hypnoerotomachia" -- "the strife of love in a dream" is a famous Renaissance book from about 1510, reputedly the most beautiful ever printed, with mysterious illustrations based on﻿ antique designs. Also called "The Dream of Polyphilius," it is written in 'Macheronic" a combination of languages. No one knows who wrote it or what it means. Some think it is about the unity of all religions (or "natural religion"). Polyphilius means "lover of all." It was printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice.

Diverging from the “naturalistic” Disney-like canons that were reigning in the 1950-60s in Soviet animated cartoons, he created his own style, which was laconic yet multi-level, non-trivial and vivid.

He is the director of outstanding animated short films including such classics as his social satire of bureaucrats, Chelovek v ramke (The Man in the Frame) (1966), the philosophic parable, Ostrov (Island) (1973) about the loneliness of a man in modern society, the biographical film Ein Junger Mann namens Engels - Ein Portrait in Briefen (1970), based on drawings and letters of young Engels, the parody Film, film, film! (1968), and the anti-war film, Lev i byk (The Lion and the Bull) (1984).

During his long career, he was awarded innumerable awards by all major film festivals. Today, Fyodor Khitruk lives in Moscow.

Matches, Rope, and Clay take on a new life!

Garri Bardin (born September 11, 1941) is a Russian animation director, screenwriter and producer and director. During Soviet times he was with Soyuzmultfilm, and in 1991 he founded his own studio, Stayer. In 2010, the studio finished making a feature-length animated film based on The Ugly Duckling, which Bardin directed.

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Garri Bardin was born in 1941 in the city of Orenburg. After the graduation from V.I.Nemirovich-Danchenko Drama School under M.Gorky MKHAT USSR he worked as actor in Gogol Theater, was in the films.

In the year 1974 he composed jointly with V.Livanov a play “Don Juan” and was invited by Sergei Obraztsov to Moscow Puppet Theater as a producer. In the year 1975 Garri Bardin started to work as an animated cartoon director at “Soyuzmultfilm” Studios where he made 15 films within 15 years, that earned him many prizes both at home and abroad. His films have won him three “Nica” awards, “Golden Olive-Branch” of the Cannes Festival and many other most prestigious prizes from around the world.

In the year 1999 Garri Bardin was honored with the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

Garri Bardin owes his recognition and success to a variety of techniques and materials used such as: matches in “Conflict”, ropes in “Marriage”, wire in “Freaks”, or origami in one of his recent films “Adagio”. Besides, the author makes use of traditional puppets and plasticine as well.

In the year 1991 Garri Bardin and the group started his own studio "Stayer", where he has been working up to now. Four films have been shot over these years that also won numerous prizes. Currently, he is doing his new fifth film, which is to be completed this year.